Home prices nationwide increased 6.3 percent on a year-over-year basis in May, representing 39 months consecutive year-over-year increases, according to CoreLogic’s May Home Price Index (HPI).
Including distressed sales, 33 states and the District of Columbia were at or within 10 percent of their peak prices in May 2015. Ten states and the District of Columbia also reached new price peaks not experienced since January 1976, when the CoreLogic HPI started.
Excluding distressed sales, home prices increased by 6.3 percent in May 2015 compared with May 2014 and increased by 1.4 percent month over month compared with April 2015. Excluding distressed sales, only Massachusetts (-2 percent) and Louisiana (-0.2 percent) showed year-over-year depreciation in May. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate-owned transactions.
“The rate of home price appreciation ticked up in May with gains being fairly widely distributed across the country. Importantly, higher home prices over the past couple of years have spurred increases in new single-family construction,” Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic, said in a statement. “Sales of newly built homes during the first five months of 2015 were up 23 percent from a year ago, and as rising values build equity for homeowners, we expect to see more existing homes offered for sale in the coming year.”
According to CoreLogic, home prices in Boston, including distressed sales, declined 4.8 percent year-over-year in May. On a month-over-month basis, home prices declined 2.4 percent.
Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices declined 2.2 percent in May 2015. On a month-over-month basis, excluding distressed sales, the CoreLogic HPI indicated home prices decreased by 0.2 percent.
Including distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price appreciation were: South Carolina (+10.3 percent), Colorado (+9.8 percent), Washington (+8.8 percent), Florida (+8.7 percent) and Nevada (+8.3 percent). Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price appreciation were: South Carolina (+9.6 percent), Colorado (+9.2 percent), Florida (+8.9 percent), Washington (+8.5 percent) and Oregon (+7.9 percent).
Including distressed sales, only five states experienced home price depreciation: Massachusetts (-4.8 percent), Connecticut (-1.8 percent), Maryland (-1.5 percent), Mississippi (-1.4 percent) and Louisiana (-0.8 percent).
Of the top 100 Core Based Statistical Areas measured by population, 92 showed year-over-year increases. The eight CBSAs that showed year-over-year declines included Boston (-4.8 percent); Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn. (-0.32 percent); Cambridge-Newton-Framingham (-2.9 percent); and Worcester (-6.6 percent).
